Innovation Initiative

In an article for Forbes, Devin Cook, executive producer of MIT’s Inclusive Innovation Challenge, explains that the challenge is aimed at finding new ways for people to “share in the prosperity that digital technology creates.” 

Forbes contributor David Worrell speaks with Nick Majer, a participant in a Martin Trust Center for MIT Entrepreneurship startup incubator. Majer explains that at MIT, “innovation is contagious and inescapable, and with innovation being a major part of entrepreneurship, it makes sense that MIT students become effective entrepreneurs.”

Writing for The Wall Street Journal, Visiting Lecturer Irving Wladawsky-Berger praises MIT’s Inclusive Innovation Competition, a contest that honors companies aimed at improving economic opportunities for all workers. Wladawsky-Berger writes that it’s heartening that MIT is “searching for breakthrough innovations to help improve [the] economic prospects” of workers impacted by advanced technologies. 

BostInno reporter Olivia Vanni writes that MIT is launching a new venture to support startups working on scientific and technological innovations that require time and patient capital. Vanni writes that tech industry leaders see the new effort “as a prime opportunity to retain our local tech talent."

CNN reporter Matt McFarland writes that MIT is launching a new entity aimed at providing space, funding and support for startups focused on tackling the world’s biggest challenges. "This is putting a piece in the puzzle that is missing," explains Executive Vice President and Treasurer Israel Ruiz. "There's a deficiency in the ecosystem to support these startups."

President L. Rafael Reif writes for The Boston Globe about The Engine, a new venture built by MIT to support startups tackling the world’s pressing challenges. Reif writes that The Engine will provide a model of support that nurtures “high-impact ideas and speeds them into the world while helping our regional innovation ecosystem flourish.”

Zeninjor Enwemeka reports for WBUR that MIT is launching an effort aimed at helping startups bring scientific inventions from the lab to the marketplace. Enwemeka notes that in addition to providing space, funding and support for startups, The Engine “will tap into the region's innovation hubs and aims to create an innovation network across the area.”

MIT’s new enterprise, called The Engine, is aimed at supporting startups in research-heavy fields, writes Curt Woodward for The Boston Globe. “We see the opportunity for MIT to start this process and really make a huge difference in driving down the cost of innovation in hard technology and science,” notes Israel Ruiz, MIT’s executive vice president and treasurer.

David Harris reports for the Boston Business Journal on MIT’s new venture that will provide space, funding and support to startups focused on developing “‘tough’ technologies — big ideas that require time and long-term capital to commercialize — in a range of sectors including biotechnology, robotics, manufacturing, medical devices and energy.”

Erandi Palihakkara writes for The Huffington Post about the MIT Inclusive Innovation Competition (IIC), which honored companies focused on how technology can help workers across all income levels. “The goal of the IIC is to identify organizations that are harnessing digital innovations to create shared prosperity,” explains Prof. Erik Brynjolfsson. 

MIT’s Inclusive Innovation Competition honored companies for innovations aimed at improving economic opportunity, reports Deirdre Fernandes for The Boston Globe. Fernandes writes that the competition was an effort “to highlight partnerships between man and machine and drive more innovation to under-served communities.”

In a Boston Globe article about increasing interest in bio-agriculture, Robert Weisman highlights a number of MIT spinoffs, including Grove Labs and Ginkgo Bioworks. Weisman highlights the aquaponics systems Grove Labs is developing “complete with LED lighting, for growing fruit, vegetables, and herbs at home,” and how Ginkgo Bioworks is producing a “roster of ‘bio-products’ that include organic pesticides.”

In an article for Forbes, Nish Acharya examines MIT’s entrepreneurial culture, highlighting how the Institute supports innovators through a variety of programs on campus. Acharya writes that “other universities can learn from MIT how it has empowered its students, faculty and alumni to build their ideas by strategically, and formally, leveraging the institutional capabilities of MIT.”

Fortune reporter Katie Fehrenbacher features MIT startup Grove Labs in a piece about companies aimed at making our day-to-day lives more sustainable. Fehrenbacher explains that Grove's aquaponics-based gardening systems are aimed at providing “eco-minded customers a way to grow their own food.”

A new study by MIT researchers examines the difficulties American entrepreneurs face in trying to scale their companies, according to The Economist. The researchers found that while “the American economy is still producing plenty of the right sort of firms, with lots of growth potential…fewer of those firms seem to grow big.”